Lecture - The Vanity of the Canon
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Date:
The portrait of an ambitious opportunist from the Middle Ages
The fifteenth-century canon Joris van der Paele had himself immortalized in prayer by the great Flemish master Jan van Eyck (inventory no. 412, collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp). But was he truly as devout as he appears in his portrait?
For years, historian Hendrik Callewier searched archives at home and abroad for traces of the patron Joris van der Paele and Jan van Eyck. The result of this research is the book The Vanity of the Canon, which was received with great enthusiasm. The newspaper De Standaard described it as “an exceptionally rich book, one that deserves to be devoured by every lover of the Burgundian Netherlands” (****). Callewier sketches the historical context, allowing us to view Van Eyck’s work from a fresh perspective.
Indeed, the painting Madonna with Canon Joris van der Paele does not tell the whole story. Joris was less devout than Jan van Eyck would have us believe. As a young man, the canon left his native city of Bruges to enter the service of the pope—not out of vocation, but out of ambition: a hunger for success and wealth drove him. At the papal court, he witnessed world history firsthand, at a time when the Church was undergoing one of its greatest crises, the Western Schism. Joris returned to the Low Countries enormously wealthy and chose to spend his fortune on a painting and on foundations intended to save his soul and secure his immortality.
In his lecture, the author lifts a corner of the veil and sheds new light on several works from the KMSKA collection. In doing so, he not only illuminates the life of Van der Paele, but also the late medieval Church, society, and painting.
Hendrik Callewier (1981) is head of the State Archives in Bruges and Kortrijk and lectures at KU Leuven Kulak.
Practical
Where?
Reading Room
When?
The lecture starts at 11:00 AM
Price?
Free for Friends of the KMSKA
